se, his office is to be a
watchful, but quiet spectator of the operations of nature, giving them
fair play by a well regulated regimen, and by all the aid they can
derive from the excitement of good spirits and hope in the patient.
I have no doubt, that some diseases not yet understood may in time be
transferred to the table of those known. But, were I a physician, I
would rather leave the transfer to the slow hand of accident, than
hasten it by guilty experiments on those who put their lives into my
hands. The only sure foundations of medicine are, an intimate knowledge
of the human body, and observation on the effects of medicinal
substances on that. The anatomical and clinical schools, therefore, are
those in which the young physician should be formed. If he enters with
innocence that of the theory of medicine, it is scarcely possible he
should come out untainted with error. His mind must be strong indeed,
if, rising above juvenile credulity, it can maintain a wise infidelity
against the authority of his instructers, and the bewitching delusions
of their theories. You see that I estimate justly that portion of
instruction, which our medical students derive from your labors; and,
associating with it one of the chairs which my old and able friend,
Doctor Rush, so honorably fills, I consider them as the two fundamental
pillars of the edifice. Indeed, I have such an opinion of the talents
of the professors in the other branches which constitute the school of
medicine with you, as to hope and believe, that it is from this side
of the Atlantic, that Europe, which has taught us so many other things,
will at length be led into sound principles in this branch of science,
the most important of all others, being that to which we commit the care
of health and life.

I dare say, that by this time you are sufficiently sensible that old
heads, as well as young, may sometimes be charged with ignorance and
presumption. The natural course of the human mind is certainly from
credulity to scepticism: and this is perhaps the most favorable apology
I can make for venturing so far out of my depth, and to one, too,
to whom the strong as well as the weak points of this science are so
familiar. But having stumbled on the subject in my way, I wished to give
a confession of my faith to a friend; and the rather, as I had perhaps,
at times, to him as well as others, expressed my scepticism in medicine,
without defining its extent or foundation. A